Gamification stuff we love: Rework – future of education
Earlier this week I attended the RE:work Future of education event under the banner of #edtech. It was absolutely refreshing to see how innovative minds are designing ways to engage with students across the education curriculum. Although the target audience seemed to be pitched at teachers and traditional educators, I got really excited about potentially transferring some of these ideas to adults and corporates.
The one message that came across as loud and clear from the event, is that students love to learn and explore and follow their curiosity and creativity, yet by putting formal structures and rules on it, we often kill this innate spirit to learn. The speakers also shared that when a student learns first hand, the lesson is much more powerful than if someone tells you something. I personally have this believe for some time that this is the best form of learning, whether that is linked to my personal learning style or a wider confirmed and researched idea I am not yet sure of.
We heard and saw presentations and got to play with gadgets from Ultimaker, Technology will save us, Pibot, Kano, Made by Many, SAM labs. All of which made my geek gadget wish list grow each time the speaker had finished. We also heard from the inspiring Global Xprize and their extension to an adult learning prize in addition to the one aimed at children, which I have featured in the blog before.
Ultimaker showed how 3D printing and open source software stimulated a disruptive uninterested teenager to build something overnight at home, when before his interest in school work was low. They also showed how medical trained people were creating prints of bones and pre-operation views based on the original x-rays of a patient in order to perform a better operation. In my mind it just made a lot of intangible concepts printable and the potential for use can be super creative.
The topic of wearable or playable technology definitely came across from Pibot and a throwable computer ball, were the purpose of the interaction was first to design either a robot or a game and then to see it play out. In my view a very cool way to learn and a nice way to blend playfulness with technology and as a side effect learning. The best way to learn is when it happens naturally as part of progress.
Technology will save us had amazing kits to build structured around the education curriculum but with the intent to also let students create more than the initial kit provides. You could build a plant watering kit, a games console and much more and equally learn to code as part of the deal.
SAM labs also had a small kit which let you learn about electricity, boolean logic, coding in a very practical way. Tapping in to social media by making a tweet light for example or a robot or a tweet powered car maybe? Anyway, earlier this week I had tried to explain Boolean logic to recruiters and although they believed me, the kit from SAM labs would have made the comprehension fully clear. Hence I invested in one, even if I can’t fully play with it until their app comes out later this month. I will come back to this one, in a future post.
The evening totally inspired and fascinated me and it was a stark contrast to what I typically see in e-learning at corporate level. I believe the future of learning will be more about self-learning, experiencing and the tools showcased at this event were taking content gamification to another level a way more exciting level. The ultimate outcome learning in the most natural way possible by exploring and creating.
What has inspired you lately in learning or #edtech?
